Recorded as Stour-in-Usmere in 736 ce, it was given to the comes (count) Cyneberght by King Aethelbald of Mercia (reigned 716–757). Later it passed to the bishop of Worcester and thence to Cenwulf, king of Mercia (816), and it remained a royal manor until the reign of Henry II (1154–89). The town’s once-important cloth trade is first mentioned in 1334; carpet manufacture replaced that of woolen goods in 1735. Pop. (2001) 55,348; (2011) 55,530.

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